


The Undercover Patriot

by hamboedeker



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-19
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:40:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27624200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hamboedeker/pseuds/hamboedeker
Summary: Martha Washington introduces Eliza Hamilton to a group of female rebels who go undercover as male soldiers to fight in the Revolutionary War.  Eliza must decide whether to join this group of unlikely heroes or continue living her quiet domestic life while waiting for her husband to return from war.
Relationships: Alexander Hamilton/Elizabeth "Eliza" Schuyler
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	The Undercover Patriot

Eliza felt her eyes burn as she looked around an unrecognizable Union Square teeming with turmoil. "People are shouting in the street," she thought as she looked around. Eliza wondered why her eyes burned when it dawned on her that there was smoke billowing high and low. She could barely see through the haze and debris, and it smelled like - gunfire? "Could that be?" she wondered. Eliza ran her hand through her hair and found herself holding a strange hat. "What is this?" she thought. Her arms fell and her hand brushed against something that was not her gown, so she looked down. The buff and blue? The costume that clothed the brave and the true . . . the revolutionaries. Eliza's confusion confounded her. A figure flitted furtively in front of her - Angelica? As that thought crossed her mind Angelica turned to her and wonderingly whispered, "New ideas? We won't retreat." Eliza squinted at her sister quizzically and then turned when she heard a sound behind her. She saw Peggy, her younger sister, but something was amiss. Peggy's dress was torn, her hair was tousled, and her face was taut. Peggy ran to Eliza, grabbed her arm, and somberly spouted, "War is here . . . our chore is clear . . . ." A moment later she melted into the mist. Eliza shook her head. "What is happening?" she wondered. Suddenly, the sound of a softly chanting chorus surrounded her. "People are shouting in the street . . . war is here . . . we won't retreat . . . our chore is clear . . . shouting street . . . war here . . . we retreat . . . chore clear . . . street . . . here . . . retreat . . . clear . . . ." Eliza shot upright in her lounge. She shook her head and glanced around. Looking down, she spied her sewing project in her lap. She had dozed off and found herself yet again drowning in that disturbing, and yet deliciously dramatic dream.

As Eliza stood up, she gazed down at the garment in her hands. "The buff and the blue," she marveled. "This must be the sixteenth uniform I have stitched since Sunday." Helping Martha with the uniform committee had taken up much of Eliza's time over the past weeks and as much as she was pleased to be doing her part for the war effort, she was craving a new experience. Her recurring dream about the war is evidence of the fact that while she was fearful of the clandestine project that she heard about from Martha, she was at the same time intrigued. Was there more in store for Eliza during this horror of a war? Eliza walked to the window, looked out at her carefully tended gardens and recalled the conversation that had been consuming her thoughts and had the potential to rewrite her story.

It was the week prior that Eliza first heard of the undercover project that Martha had been organizing for months. At first Eliza was stunned and horrified by her friend's doings. Eliza stared out the window and thought back on that first inexplicable conversation with Martha. "My dear Eliza," Martha began, "allow me to introduce you to a group I have recently formed." Martha was leading Eliza into her glorious home, through the center hall and out to the back porch that overlooked the grand lawn that sloped down to the Potomac River. On the lawn were a group of rebels regally decked out in the buff and the blue, participating in training drills. Eliza remembers being baffled by the sight. She turned to Martha with a quizzical look on her face. Martha said, "You New York girls reckon that the revolution is happening in New York, right?" Eliza stared straight into Martha's strangely sneaky eyes. "Well, Mrs. Hamilton, these Virginia minds are at work, too, and we intend to make use of not only our minds, but our might as well!" By the time Martha finished her statement, the two women had made their way down the hill to meet the group of uniformed . . . women?!? Eliza could hardly believe her eyes. Here before her on the grand lawn of General George Washington and his wife Martha were wives she had known for years, dressed in revolutionary uniforms. Mrs. Madison was there, as were the wives of many high-ranking patriots, and a number of women Eliza did not recognize. From afar they appeared to be men, training for their turn on the battlefield. Only up close, to a discerning eye, was their secret apparent.

"What in the world is going on here?" Eliza mumbled while turning towards her friend. Her head was spinning with the idea of the impossible becoming possible. Her own sister Angelica had fought for ages about the fierceness of the female sex and her fervent desire for equal freedoms. Eliza exclaimed, "Martha, even my forward-thinking sister Angelica has never envisioned an ambition such as this that could lead to a commission of sedition!" Martha smiled. "My dear, your Alexander would be proud of your ability to spin those wonderous words of wisdom. Of course, Angelica's mind has never meandered into the machinations of a mighty Virginian's malignant mind! I have been watching you for months now, my dear, and I have been listening to the thoughts that have been escaping from what is clear to me to be your hidden adventurous mind. I believe that you could be an excellent extension of our radical tactical act. What do you say? Don't you want to secure yourself a place in this narrative?"

Eliza stared at the group before her and slowly turned back to face Martha. "Are you truly asking me to join a troupe of undercover mutinous patriots?!" Martha smiled a slow and knowing smile, tilted her chin up towards the sky and simply replied, "Yes."

For the remainder of that unreal day, Eliza was surrounded by a swirling storm of syllables streaming from the mouths of her Southern associates. They told tales of terror and bravery on the battlefield. Eliza was dumbfounded that these women had so successfully inserted themselves into the nasty narrative of armed conflict. As their stories unfolded, Eliza found herself intrigued by the idea of donning the buff and blue to defend what she hoped would soon be her new nation. "Am I up to the task?" Eliza wondered. As she left Mount Vernon the next morning, Martha firmly held Eliza's shoulders, leaned in, and whispered, "Think about what you have learned here. I see abundant adventures and courageous crusades to come for the both of us." Eliza climbed into her carriage in a daze and rode home with wonderous thoughts swirling around her head.

After a week of dazzling, dynamic dreams and hours upon hours of thinking, her mind was racing. She could clearly hear her own worried words to Alexander, "Stay alive!" Yet, at the same time, Alexander's strong-willed words echoed in her mind, almost becoming her song. As the week wore on, Alexander's words shadowed her own and she thought, "I am not throwing away my shot!" She ran to her room to begin packing her bags for yet another trip to Virginia where Eliza would begin her new life as an undercover patriot. "Rise up!" she thought, as she dashed down her front steps and into what was sure to be her most dynamic narrative to date.


End file.
